Electronic devices often employ physical buttons as means for allowing users to provide inputs. Push-buttons, rotary knobs, and toggle switches are some examples of physical buttons. Physical buttons can take many other forms and require different corresponding physical movements to operate.
For example, presently available smartphones have buttons for adjusting the sound volume, powering the device up on down, and for several other functions. A user of the smartphone device depresses a button to input a command to cause the device to perform a function. Many other electronic devices similarly use buttons for these and other functions.
Many electronic devices, such as portable computing devices, smartphones, and others, now employ touch-sensitive interfaces, such as touch-screens. Many functions traditionally handled by buttons have been migrated to those touch-sensitive interfaces.
Removal of buttons and migration of their functions to a touch interface has allowed more seamless device enclosures, as fewer buttons are required than before. A few functions however, such as power and volume control, are still often implemented using buttons. These buttons require breaks and penetrations through the outer case, which can also become paths for dust or moisture to enter the case.